


Iron Sky

by Wildonce



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-27 07:22:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9982652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wildonce/pseuds/Wildonce
Summary: She's my mate - words that will shape her life, if Leah lets them.Can a wolf be mated to a vampire? Does she even want to be?





	1. Chapter 1

 

It happens at the funeral. A howl. A call. She wants to, thinks she should be able to identify who it is just from the sound but she cant. Doesn’t have any idea, not even a hint. Leah would have thought they’d all have been here, standing in the drizzling rain as they gather around the hole her father lies in but no, obviously not. They have a job - a duty - and that can’t rest. She can’t rest.

Her legs move without thought, her hand slipping from where it had been clasped onto the sleeve of her mother's good jacket. Her mother. Jesus, it’s not fair, it is so not fair she can barely stand it. A sob to her mother’s side catches her attention, stopping her feet and drawing her gaze away from the hole and the plain pine box in it. She’d been staring at it for so long, eyes and ears dead to everything going on around her. There’s a beautiful whirl right above where she imagines her dad’s head to be, a dark reddish brown mark that fades out and twists its way into the lighter wood. A blood mark. The sob is Seth, both his fists clenched in front of him, shaking and crying and looking down at the wet grass. All Leah can see is the top of his bent head and all she can think of are his shaking hands, his shaking shoulders. It's not the same kind as the shaking they've been doing for days now.

It’s an effort to still her own feet. A battle against her will and the will of this new thing that lives inside of her. _Stop,_ she thinks harshly, _Stop for Seth._ The pull lessens but she knows from experience it will only come back stronger, more forceful, more determined to bend or break her to its will. She can’t bare to look at her own mother, can’t bare to see the look that would no doubt grace her face, so instead she stares straight forward and watches Seth’s bent head in her peripherals. If she tries she could see the hole out the other. Her ears are awake again now and she can hear the murmuring of her family, the confusion as more than one person shifts, no excuses, and then slips away. They tread lightly on the ground but Leah can more than hear them. She's in on the big secret now.

_Come come come. Now._

Her own hand doesn’t shake as she reaches out to her brother and clasps her long fingers around his right fist. Her head doesn’t turn when his snaps up to look at her. Her hand does clench, her sharp too long nails cutting into his skin and releasing five little drops of crimson when she sees his face. Just a glimpse from the corner of her eye. Seth. Her shining Seth. What are they doing to him? He's so different and it hurts.

_Now._

The command sounds in her head, in her very fucking soul and her toes curl in the tips of her black ballet flats. Not appropriate for a funeral but the only thing she has, the only thing that she could push her new size into that wasn’t a flip flop. The distraction is enough to get enough control to unclench her fingers and instead slip them around his. She wouldn’t have been able to if he hadn’t let the tight coil relax, his fingers reaching out to welcome hers. She starts walking the moment their palms touch, her legs moving again without her permission but her right arm, it’s fully under her control. It stretches almost to the point of pain but Leah doesn’t let her fingers tighten. She won’t pull him, _never_ , and thankfully she doesn’t need to. His steps sound behind her - heavy and harsh in boots that are too big and too tight all at the same time, boots that used to belong to the man in the pine box. There is enough pulling on them both these days and Leah will never let herself be something that drags him somewhere he doesn’t want to go. Her feet don’t even need to slow though. He knows just as well, can hear it just as well as her. There isn’t a choice.

The sounds of their family, what feels like the whole fucking reservation follow them as they walk away. It takes all she has in her, the tiny dregs of whatever makes her up that Leah has left at the very bottom of herself, not to listen. Instead she focuses on the hot palm in hers and the heavy steps that follow her down the hillside and into the tree line. Neither of them rush and Leah doesn’t let go until the very last moment. Neither of them strip down. They just let their hands slip apart and then burst from the skin that used to be able to hold them in.

The change doesn’t hurt. They’d all told - shown, thought - her that eventually it wouldn’t but Leah hadn’t really believed them. Part of her still doesn’t, thinking maybe she’s finally just to numb, to shattered up to even feel the pain.

_Leah Leah leah god mum we left her alone and dad's gone he's in the ground, leah, leah, oh god…_

_The leech is in Forks,_ Sam states either not noticing or choosing to ignore Seth. His anguish, his soul deep fucking sadness is an echo of her own and buzzes hard in her head. _Quil, Embry you head down the south path. Eyes open._

Leah watches, still in the pile of her ripped funeral clothes, through their eyes as they head out. Jacob is already in the town, the woods behind the Swan house shifting into her through him. Sam and Paul are to the north, Jared already running to meet them. Seth shifts, his mind silent but screaming, and comes closer to her. Leah is made of lead. She's hollow.

There’s a shift of attention - of focus - and though she knows he’s miles away, can actually fucking _see_ it, Leah feels Sam's eyes on her and Seth. It’s a brush rather than the usual dig.

_You two, stay at the Res. Run the lines out of town, ignore the water._

It’s not an order but the words are laced with enough of one that they don't hesitate, both pushing up and off from their back legs, eight paws hitting the cold forest floor. Leah feels one of the claws on her right foreleg sink into what is left of her shoe, the worn cheap leather like butter as it splits under her. Leah starts off to the north, nose down and eyes open for all of two steps. Seth has angled himself off to the south and she’s not having that. They go together.

 _No,_ Sam states, eye still on them.

 _Leah oh i can’t,_ Seth wails behind her eyes and Leah turns to look at him. He’s still moving forward and away from her.

She wants to tell him it’s okay, that it will all be okay but she can’t. Leah does not lie to Seth. Even this won’t make her start.

_You’ll cover more ground, there are just the two of you. Emily. You need to cover the whole res - be ready if she turns and she might turn._

_Sam,_ Embry buts in, his attention now on them too. He feels sad, concerned, excited. A buzz running through him that they all feel. _This isn’t right._

 _Run._ That time it’s an order.

 _I’m fine,_ Seth states, a whisper that he directs solely at her but they can all hear. They can all taste the lie in it, too.

 _Enough,_ Sam barks out, startling them all to attention. Bring them all into the conversation. _Run the route, now._

Her legs take off without a thought.

 

* * *

 

  
  
  
Their mother is alone in the house when they finally return. The lights are all on and Leah can smell so many left over scents she knows people came, kept Sue company but it isn’t enough. Her children weren’t there to see their father covered, to hold her hand, to shake the hands of the people come to say goodbye with them. Leah had prepared herself for it. Locked up her own sadness and sorrow tight so she could be there, a shoulder, a hand, a knee to grasp onto, for her mum and Seth. She didn’t even get to do that. They’ve taken even that away from her.

They’re both naked - clothes lost to the shift - and silent as the creep in through the back door and up the stairs. Leah isn’t ashamed or uncomfortable. It’s Seth, the only one of the Pack she makes this exception with, whereas they all seem to have lost all inhibitions as well as their individuality. At the door to his room Seth stops, her freezing just a step behind.

“I’m gonna go sit with mum,’ he whispers, face old and Leah fights back a sob. Turns in into a small smile instead.

“She’ll like that,” she reassures him. And she will. They both will.

Leah knows the offer is open, that no offer is actually even needed, but she doesn’t join them. Instead she slips into her own dark room, leaving the light off and pulls clothes from her chest of drawers. Shorts, a shirt that won’t cover her hip bones any more. Her eyes avoid the mirrors in the room as she slips them on, silent and listening to the soft pad of bare feet, the squeak of a door, the murmur of two voices she knows so well and the creak as the bed her parents used to share settles under the added weight of her brother. The sound of it has her turning, shooting a glance down at her own. What she wouldn’t give to sink into it, to bury her face in her pillow and scream out her pain, to just let it all go. But no. If she starts, lets any of what she has locked so tightly down out it will never stop. It’ll burn it’s way through her and seep out into the people around her, this Leah feels with a certainty that borders on madness. She could be toxic. It would be oh so easy.

Her cell phone isn’t charged. There didn’t seem to be much of a point these days, so she has to make the trip down stairs to place the call. Their family phone hangs on the wall in the kitchen. She focuses on nothing but that as she silently creeps down the stairs. The murmurs don’t stop, her steps quiet enough that even Seth's werewolf ears don’t hear.

Focus.

The handset is cold in her hands and the shadows of the trees lining their yard hit off the plastic as she lifts it to her ear. The number is as easy to remember as her own name.

Two rings. Three rings.

“Hello?” His voice is quiet, confused, like he can’t quite work out who would phone him off of this number. “Hello?”

“I need to leave,” Leah breathes out, quick but clear. “Please, listen,” she adds before he can say anything. “I...I can’t breathe here. It’s killing me. I just need some time. A week, two. Anything. Please. I just need to breathe. I can’t…” She trails off, fighting to hold back the sob that's burning in her throat. No tears, not now, not ever for him.

There's a sigh that she knows so well, deep like the ocean. “I can’t let you. You know I can’t let you. I _would_ but I can't.”

 _You can. You could, if you wanted to. You will._ “I’ll come back,” she replies instead, voice solid again, “as soon as you asked me too. You could order it, any time you wanted you could make me come back.”

“Lee-”

“You wouldn’t need to. I wouldn't need to be ordered,” she cuts over him. “If I stay here, I'll die. I know i will. Everything...I'm just. I hate, so so much. I’m going. I am.” A strong sure statement. Fact.

She waits then having said her bit. She’s made herself as clear as she is willing to allow him to see. If he knows her at all, remembers anything about her, he’ll know its just the tip. She’d been so close to begging. The shadows shift and even through the closed walls of her house she hears the passing of one of them, slowing down. Her eyes squeeze closed and her left hand lifts up to join the right holding the phone. Fault lines open in the plastic and quickly, ashamed, her grip loosens.

Another sigh, fabric shifting, a deep breath before the plunge. “You’ll shift once every twelve hours. Noon and midnight,” he tells her, “and you can’t go far. Not more than a few hours run away.”

  
Leah hangs up before he can take it back.


	2. Chapter 2

Carlisle makes sure they are there first. A solid line of support standing beside Edward and Bella. Jasper can appreciate the sentiment while still disagreeing with it. He knows that the party line hasn’t pulled them all here. The tactical part of him was what got him here, ten minutes before the agreed upon meeting time and buzzing with the irritation and anticipation of the others. His disagreement with the two in the centre of this whole shit show has him standing off to the side, a little away from the family but still clearly there. Supportive, if you don’t know any better. It’s just as well these Quileute don’t know them. It’s so fucking clear. 

“Jasper,” Edward growls, his head turning from where he had been staring down at the human. “ _ Please,”  _ he adds through gritted teeth, irritation quickly being stamped down inside him.

He doesn’t want to antagonise him, Jasper knows. Not now. There are enough problems being openly displayed without adding theirs. There’s always that flare whenever Jasper thinks of her as the human, though it isn’t meant in any derogatory way. Edward knows this, just like he knows most things. That doesn't mean he understands them, Jasper thinks, loud and quick. Petty and unashamed of it. Esme turns to look at him then too, her hand clasping tighter to the hold she has on Carlisle. She’s concerned - a near constant since they left Forks- and Jasper shoots her a half smile in apology. Upsetting her is something he avoids most days. She’s purer than almost all the other vampires he has met, even more so than Carlisle. Half of it is her innocence and the sheltered life they all have enabled her to lead but there’s also something else to it, something almost human in her that survived the burn of the change.

It isn’t the time, he can admit that. Though when the time will be he has no fucking idea. It used to be so easy, effortless after more than a lifetime of  _ hard,  _ to be with them all. Now it's a minefield. Loyalty and family ties can only do so much amongst their kind. They feel things too strongly, too fiercely, for things to be allowed to fester, for differences of opinion to be ignored for too long. It’s something they all know and live by. Volatile Rosalie isn’t the only screamer in the family. He can see it happening right in front of his eyes, holes opening up right in the middle of their cosy family unit. They never used to have to play pretend at home. 

A shift off to his right, further past Esme and out of his sight draws his attention. Alice, her arm now clasped on to Esme as she turns slightly away from Edward. “They’re coming,” she announces, worried. Exposed, Jasper thinks. Naked without her gift. 

The shapeshifters. The whole reason they are gathered in the middle of the forest. A meet. He’s never heard something so fucking ridiculous in his life, like something out of his old life but with the added token human. Still, he’s here now and already he can feel them in coming. He’s never been around them before and instantly they hit into him like a shot. They are coming at them head on, fast but slowly the closer they get. The smell hasn’t reached him yet and that just makes it all the more surreal. His gift is strong and useful but it’s range is limited. Jasper has never been able to  _ feel  _ a vampire before he can smell them, usually not even before he can see them either. But these shifters, they feel so strongly he almost can’t control the urge to close himself off. Lock down his gift and feel nothing but his own emotions. He doesn’t, though. It’s instantly intoxicating. The strength of it all, the tight control that he can sense even in the heaving mass of pure feeling. Anger, lust, annoyance, rage, delight, pride, eagerness, aggression, humour, grief, anticipation, love, admiration, pain, frustration. It’s all there. None of it diluted, not of it anything other than pure and strong. Put him in front of a hundred humans, twenty of his kind, and Jasper wouldn’t be this affected. Instead of pulling back, Jasper pushes out with more strong. Seeking it out. He’s always had an addictive personality and this, this is what crack would be to a human. He's had a taste and suddenly his mind sings with Alice's worry and warning. Not now, he reminds himself, she isn't worried now. 

While he’s absorbing it all in, tasting it all and feeling so fucking greedy with it, Rosalie ghosts over to him, Emmett looking after her but not moving from his spot by Bella. He’d gasped, the least fucking vampire act he’s committed in a long time but it was involuntary. A left over human tell. A visual and audible sign of his shock, his sheer fucking interest and surprise. Unwilling to let them in on it anymore than that, he shoots Rose the same smile he’d given Esme and sticks his focus back on treeline and the approaching shifters. 

“Seven,” Edward announces quietly, looking to Carlisle.

There should be eight. The boy infatuated with Edwards human had told them that. 

“One to protect the Reservation?” Rosalie suggests equally as quietly. Edward shakes his head and Jasper has to agree. That doesn’t feel right,

The wolves had slowed to a stop now. They are close enough to smell and without the treeline in the way, Jasper is sure they could see them now too. The emotions are just as intense and it takes a conscious effort to move the focus of his gift from them and onto his family.

There will be other chances, he assures himself. 

“They’re waiting,” Edward states, having clearly listened in, loud enough that even Bella can hear. “For someone,” he adds after a moment of silence. 

Rage. Bright hot burning rage. Sheer fucking anger. Fury. 

“Jasper,” Rosalie snarls, hands reaching out to touch him but stopping before making contact. The force of the emotions had actually had him stepping back, his left leg stretching out behind him. Like he had been about to run from it. 

Shaking his head, another human gesture but this one he isn't embarrassed about,not in the least. “I’m fine,” he tells her, not taking an eye of the towering trees as he brings his foot back forward, ignoring the glances the rest of the family are shooting his way. 

Alice has tightened her grip on Esme’s sleeve he can see, the fabric close to tearing between her fingers. She doesn’t come to him and he’s thankful for it. That’s a divide that won’t be crossed. 

A rustle ahead and to the left brings his attention back to the here and now. Something is moving quickly through the trees and in their direction. Faster than they are  The all hear it, Jasper knows and the anticipation flashes hard through the family. In all their discussions about the shifters never once had they contemplated they would put strip them. 

“The eighth?” Carlisle asks, head tilted to the left. He has the best ears of them all, much better than Jasper himself, but even for him it’s still a question, a concern. 

Edward nods, his own concern and compassion suddenly filling him before quickly fading into cold determination. 

Most rustling, snapping and the hard slap of four paws pounding against hard earth, until they can smell this new wolf too. This one is different, sharper, fresher, more natural. It’s not a bad smell, not like the one that coats its fellows. Jasper breathes in deep, something he generally avoids around the human, a need burning in him to identify and categorise it. The ground after the rain, the air after a storm. A sharp tang he knows all too well. 

Even his vampire brain can’t concentrate on everything and once and Jasper grudgingly lets the scent settle in his mind for later. Instead he focuses on the beings slipping between the massive trunks ahead of them. One by one they come into sight and Jasper is mesmerised. It isn’t often he sees something new, something different, something fucking exciting, and they are. 

The first is black, a black so deep there is no other tone to it. No shades of brown, nothing. And big, a muscled beast that moves with the surety of its own power. No hesitation, stalking it’s way forward to where they stand. The Alpha, Jasper is sure and he lets one eye stay on him, half his thoughts tracking him even as he looks over the others. No two are the same, not even close. They come in varying sizes - huge all of them. Grey, brown, more black, white. Muscles that ripple over bone, coiled and restrained power visible to him through every move they make. Four, five, six. Seven is smaller, more sleek.  _ Young _ , Jasper thinks with a certainty he can’t quite justify. This one is younger than the others, not yet a man. It’s in the eyes, a warm brown that stare at them with an openness and curiosity the others lack. Seven’s the only one to look back too, the only one to do anything other than stare at them with deathly focus. It’s a quick half dip, half turn of the massive head, a lowering of the muzzle before it he looks back towards them. 

Everything stops when she comes through. Every other thought, every other focus slips and moves on to her. She’s even smaller than the last, even sleaker, built for speed and control. There’s still power, fuck yes there is, but it’s not the same. She’s obviously female, a natural goddess appearing in front of them all. She’s grey but that's such a ridiculous word to describe the colour of her. She isn’t anything. Never grey. Her eyes are just like her, a hazel that’s a mix of the best things that come from the Earth, a mix of the greens of the forest and the brown of the mud they all stand on. She isn’t looking at him. Her eyes are on Edward and Jasper wants to snarl, wants to push his way in front of his  _ brother _ and get those eyes on him. His gift shifts and he pushes it out, reaching reaching and then yes. There she is. Yes. 

Her emotions flow over him and Jasper knows he’s panting, pulling in useless air but it carries that scent and he can't, won’t stop. She's even  _ more  _ than the others. It’s all back, hitting against him. Anger, annoyance, rage, delight, pride, eagerness, aggression, humour, grief, anticipation, love, admiration, pain, frustration, regret, anger, anger, restraint. Tight tight control. Then there’s her, those feelings that he knows are solely hers. They glow bright in his mind, feeling more like his own than the alien information his gift feeds him. They’re curious, burning with it in fact, frustrated, hurt - jesus so hurt, it’s dripping from her -, lonely, there’s a flicker of happiness, of a bright familiar love. Grief. 

Grief. 

Jasper chokes, the air suddenly too much as it passes through his throat, and everyone lands their eyes on him. He feels none of it, nothing but her gaze. She feels so strongly and she’s in so much pain. He can feel it all, all the hurt and agony that is simmering just beneath her tightly controlled surface. 

A face blocks his view and Jasper doesn’t even fight down the snarl that builds in his chest, letting it out and letting them all hear it. Who fucking dares come between them? 

“Jasper,” the face calls, concern evident in it as a hand reaches out towards him from the right. Two people. 

“Jasper,” a softer voice, not the face. Rosalie, he thinks, though it’s not a tone he’s heard from her before. 

The face is Carlisle. “Move,” he demands, voice cold and hard. 

“Do it, Carlisle,” Edward calls out. 

The hand on his arm tightens, tenses up and he can feel Rosalie moving even closer to him. “Jasper.”

He won’t answer her, not when he can instead watch as his wolf is slowly revealed to him again as Carlisle slips to the side to stand beside her. She’s looking back at him again, her eyes flicking between him and the leader of their coven. Confused. No one moves when he takes the first step forward, nor the second. By the third Rose has to let go of his arm. He moves slow, human paced, his steps hitting on every fourth beat of Bella’s frantic heart. Her eyes stay on his the whole way. 

He’s in line with Esme, Edward and Bella when it happens. A sudden shift in the air. Nothing is said, nobody moves but something has changed. He can feel it and it stops him. She’s gone still, her gaze moving to the ground in front of her rather than on him. The black wolf, the Alpha, moves off into the treeline. None of the rest move at all - their muscles locked in a way that cannot be intentional or natural. It only takes a second. 

“Sam has gone to phase,” Edward informs them calmly, arm still tight around Bella. “He thinks it best we talk in person.” 

This Sam appears just as Edward finishes speaking. Tall, muscled and angry. Everything about his posture screams it. Jasper doesn’t need to shift his focus from her to tell, doesn’t even need to shift his gaze to see him as he makes his way directly to him. Good. Carlisle moves up behind him as the wolf makes his way closer, the three of them meeting exactly where Jasper stopped. It's right that they come to him.

“Cullen,” this Sam growls, eyes on Carlisle but hitting back to Jasper quickly. He’s standing off centre and Jasper still has her in his line of sight. 

She hasn't looked up but her emotions swirl over to him. She's worried. Horrified. Curious. Sad. Hurt. Disgusted. Hurthurthurt. “What’d you do?” 

Eyes narrowing Sam takes a half step forward before he seems to rethink it, smoothing out the lines between his thick brows with visible effort. “What did  _ you  _ do?” he demands instead. 

Everything inside Jasper burns at the question, at the sheer fucking idiocy of this wolf man who thinks he can question him, that he can stand between him and his fucking mate. Jasper has killed people - humans, vampires - for much less. But then, he can.  _ He fucking can _ . He’s the Alpha and sweet little human go between Bella has let them know all she knows about them. Alpha’s must have control and this man in front of him has it over her. 

Jasper wants to kill him. Wants it so intensely. Every second her eyes stay on the ground makes him want it even more, the venom pooling in his mouth at the thought. He could do it. It would be easy - the man is human now. He would be dead before he even thought to change his shape,  _ shift.  _

But then, where would they be? 

She hurts, he can feel it under his skin. 

“She’s my mate,” Jasper states. Silence. Stillness. Nothing but the steady beat of blood pumping and the frantic pull of air. The man in front of him seems to crumble, getting smaller and smaller in the seconds after Jasper speaks. His eyes shoot back to her, head turning away from Jasper completely and his opinion of him lowers even further. Exposed neck. Fucking idiot. 

“Congratulations, Jasper.” Carlisle tells him, sincerely Jasper assumes. He’s not checking. 

“I,” the Alpha,  _ Sam,  _ starts, obviously trying to pull himself together and failing. 

“You? What did  _ you  _ do?” A vicious spike of pleasure hits him and he just knows there is so much going on here than he can possibly understand. Minefield, in-fucking-deed. “I want to talk to her,” Jasper states, thinking it best to give at least a little warning before he just pushes right on through. 

Shaking his head the wolf seems to pull himself together, his shoulder straightening and a tight little smile taking over his face. “She didn’t Imprint.”

_ And? _

“You don’t know that she can,” Edward inserts, releasing Bella and turning to face them. He doesn’t move toward them though. He at least seems to knows his place in this. “You know enough to know what this will mean,” it’s all directed at Sam. “It will hurt, if you do, and there is no saying you can. Worse, even”

“Edward,” Carlisle cautions, his eyes taking in Jaspers growing tension. 

To have all these people talking about something that is  _ his,  _ that is  _ not one thing  _ to do with them, that belongs to  _ him  _ and  _ her  _ alone is torture. The wolf he’ll tolerate, he can’t do anything else, but Edward. No. Fucking no. 

“He wants to leave, for them all to leave. He believes that the tribe Elders will have more information,” Edward tells them and Sam snarls back at him. 

“That might be for the best,” Carlisle adds softly. 

Acceptance, eagerness, desire. She wants to go. 

“She does,” Edward states, in response to Jasper's thoughts this time. 

 

Well. 

 

“We’ll meet tomorrow,” Carlisle announces into the silence, moving forward and closer to the wolf. “Earlier. Ten? All of us.”

The wolf nods, sharp and quick, before taking a single step back and bursting from his skin, four paws striking the earth in sync. As soon as they do the whole pack move as one, eight heavy hearts speeding up as muscles uncoil and they turn as one to leave. Jasper keeps his eyes on her, waiting, watching and yes, there. She turns, looks at him again. Curiosity, and yes disgust. Not a little of it either. Grief, pain, loss it but there, right when she looks at him. A tiny little flicker, nothing in the greater landscape of her feelings, almost unnoticeable in the chaos they all create together but he gets it. He feels it. Hope. 


	3. Chapter 3

_She’s my mate._

It’s dark when they finally let her go, these men that think they have the right to decide her life. She’s been awake more than a day, running home just like she said she would after a day spent soaking in the calm and quiet she’d found for herself. She’s past tired, long past annoyed, but still it’s a sharp sting to see Seth and their mum have left without seeing her, dishes in the sink making it clear they’ve at least been there recently. Sue doesn’t abide mess. No one is in the house, something Seth tells her is no longer the exception.

There is only three hours until they need to meet them again and this is the first time Leah has had to herself. The first chance she’s had to release her breath instead of holding it in as long as possible.

_She’s my mate._

Bath, she decides. Bath and then food. Sleep if she can make time for it. Then go.

Everything is the same, she sees, wandering through the kitchen and making her way to the stairs. It’s been weeks rather than months but for some reason Leah had expected the changes to be immediately clear. Nothing is missing, the bagels only her dad liked are still sitting by the bread bin, his slippers are still by the back door. It’s nice - comforting - in a way that Leah never would have imagined it could be before she left.

The bathroom is different. There’s no dark robe on the back of the door. The water seems to run even slower.

By the time she sinks into the warm water the smells of home have settled back into her skin and her brain. She did the right thing leaving. There had been doubt, of course, but being back here and feeling the pain makes her sure. She feels it, lets the sting of it slip into her but there is nothing for it to grab onto. That hollowness is gone. That dark acid space isn’t there to seep out and into everything.

_She’s my mate._

The three words echo in her mind again and Leah pushes her head under the water, angry and confused, hiding even when there is nowhere for her to go to. They’ve been sounding in her head for hours, over and over as she listens to other people talk about her but never quite to her. Her eyes burn from the chemical tinted water but Leah keeps them open and on the wood chip white ceiling.

It’s a shock, they’d said. Never before, they tell each other, shooting glances that can’t quite manage to hide their unease. It shouldn’t be possible. They are enemies, opposites. Old Quil stares hard at her when Billy first tells him. Keeps right on looking at her even when she doesn't - won’t - look away. She isn’t ashamed, she has not done anything. Not one fucking thing.

“It can’t be broken,” Billy tells them, looking at Old Quil who looks at her.

_She’s my mate._

Breaking up through the water Leah gasps for air and raised both hands to push her hair back from where it’s stuck to her face. She doesn’t quite know what to think of that. Not really. She’s angry and that stubbornness inside of her that refuses to be told where and what and who is rattling its cage. She is not anyone's _anything._ No one has a claim to her without her consent - she will be a daughter, a sister, even a reluctant protector but the list ends there. She is nothing to the vampire.

“Mmm,” she hums out, bottom lip pulled in by her sharp teeth.

Because there it is. Vampire. Not leech. Not bloodsucker. No, vampire. That’s a difference.

_She’s my mate._

They asked her - Sam,  Billy and Old Quil - if she felt different. Did she feel a pull? Could she sense him? Did the world realline? Did she Imprint? Did they just miss it? Nothing, she’d told them. Nothing was different. Sam had looked at her hard and she knew he was thinking of how she had been before she left. Yes, different from then, that was the whole point. More her, now. They’d taken her at her word and Leah fights off a flicker of guilt at that. Dunking under the water again, Leah holds her breath tight in her chest and lets her eyes close. Things come easier to her in the dark.  

_Say it. Leech. Bloodsucker. Killer._

It’s all true, she knows that but still it doesn’t come easy. The words don’t roll like they would have yesterday. They certainly don’t have the same heat. The burning hatred for the rest is still there right on the tip of her mind, easy to pull up and Leah knows if she really pushed herself it would be there for him too. For his very existence. For what he is and what that has made her into. She doesn’t want to, though. That’s it. It's so different from what she sees in Jared and even in Sam when she can’t quite look away quick enough. They couldn't say anything bad about their Imprint - not even true things. It wouldn't come out. They burn even thinking of thinking of it.

Pushing herself up and out of the water Leah reaches for the plug and pulls it. She’d made the choice not to let herself get eaten away by the acid, by the _hate_ and she won’t. Not even with this added.

_She’s my mate._

“Maybe,” Leah tells the man who isn't there, voice loud as she pulls herself out of the tub and grabs onto the worn towel she’d brought in with her. “Maybe not.”

“Leah!” A voice calls, sharp and too loud for her ears.

“In the bathroom,” Leah calls back, her joy leaking into her tone. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

She rushes through drying, not even looking at the clothes she pulls from her drawers in her haste. It has been too long. Speaking with Seth had been all too easy while she was away. Once he learnt she had gone he assigned himself the midnight run, not even asking permission like a good little dog. They had hours of shared mindspace everything night. Hours to feel each other, to help each other deal with the loss. He struggled, missed her more than Leah had guessed he would, but Seth had done better without her there. He’d have let his own pain go, she was sure of it like she wasn’t about much in her life these days, when he understood how much she was in. Just like she felt a need to protect him, he felt a need to look after her. This had been better. She had worked on herself, spent time with family distant enough to not ask her questions about her runaway routine or the time she spent wandering the woods, and at night she could help him. Just be there in his head. Listen. Not judge.

Her mums in the kitchen, two pots boiling away on the stove and a dish towel in her hands when Leah makes her way down the stairs. She’s learnt to be quiet, sneaking out of a house not her own everything night, and so her approach hasn’t been noticed. Another difference. Her youthful mother looks old. Stretched, Leah thinks as she swallows hard.

“Hi,” she croaks out, tears close to the surface. The last time she saw her was at the funeral. Leah had been crying, quietly, hoping desperately that no one would notice and she’d handed her a tissue. Smiled at her, small but real and Leah hadn’t felt so bad about her own tears when she saw the wet trails on her mother's face.

“Leah,” she breathes out, sounding nothing but happy as she turns to look at her, arms already reaching out. Leah falls into them, two steps and then there’s two hot bands wrapping right around her.

Mouth pressed into the shoulder of her jumper Leah can’t smell anything but home. “I’m sorry i left. I’m so sorry.”

“No.” It’s said harsh, a snap and the arms tighten. “Don’t be. I know you had to. I’m just happy you’ve come back, Leah.”

Sue doesn’t lie.

“How are you?” The words are muffled by the jumper but Leah doesn’t want to let go quite yet. She’s needed this.

“None of that,” Sue tsks, pulling back and letting her hands rest on Leah's shoulders. “Sit.“ It’s so _normal_ that Leah can’t help but laugh, tears drying up and a slow smile stealing its way across her face. Right, she reminds herself, everything is the same.

They’ve spoken on the phone a few times since she left and every time her mother said the same. No blame, no sadness, no regret. Move on. Embrace each other. It’s not something Leah can do, it goes against everything that’s in her, but for Sue she can let it go for the now. She is such a free spirit, wild in a way that Leah has always envied. She looks the part too - long hair that she always lets fly loose behind her, a smile that used to drive Leah insane but that she can now see is wry. Secretive. It’s the kind of smile people want to share. Seth is so much like her it hurts sometimes. Their dad had said so, once. Telling Leah that they’d made themselves again in their children. She wonders if Sue sees him in her, if it hurts to look at her but then, that isn’t her way. Never has been.

“Soup,” Sue smiles, setting the bowl down in front of where Leah has fallen into a seat behind the table. She takes the opposite one for herself. Leah ignores the empty ones on either side of her. “There’s pasta for after,” she’s told with another smile. “You've lost weight.”

“It’s hard to eat enough,” Leah replies honestly, tucking in. The burn as the hot tomato flavour hits her tongue eases quickly. She doesn’t have enough patience to blow now that food is right in front of her. It’s the truth. Staying with family had been what she needed but they aren’t _family._ Leah couldn’t eat and eat and eat like she had wanted to some days. Still, it meant no one thought it overly odd the days she didn’t give her body anything when she first got there, starving her whole self in a effort to dissolve the boiling acid in her gut.

Nodding her mum smiles at her again, reaching out to pat her hand before getting up and moving back to the pot still going on the stove. “Nothing to hide now.”

The words are seemingly innocent but Leah knows better. There is a tone. For all her mother is a free spirit, she’s also a fucking gossip who doesn’t know when to leave anything alone. It’s useless but Leah ignores the comment, humming around the spoon in her mouth and focusing back on the bowl in front of her.

Sue isn’t the only gossip. Billy is just the same - if not worse - and Leah didn’t have any doubt that her mother would be filled in on just about every word spoken in the Black house today. It used to annoy her something fierce, still does, when they would talk around her like this. Making plans based on things they shouldn't even know. Rachel couldn't stand it. She would scream at them, call them devious even when they weren’t being that way, and then cry when it got her nowhere. Leah learnt the lesson. Now she wonders if even then they were plotting on what their sons might become.

_She’s my mate._

Flicking her eyes up to the clock, Leah scrapes up the last of her soup. Half eight. Not long and she still hasn't even nearly finished eating or got any sleep. Hasn’t even really considered what she’s going to do when they reach the field.

She won’t run into his arms, that much is for fucking sure. She hadn’t lied. Brain and body hadn't suddenly changed yet again. There was no Imprint and she doesn't love the vampire. Can’t ever imagine letting herself love one of them. They’re dead. Cold killers that she has been raised from her crib to hate. There is a sharp curiosity, though. Leah makes it a habit not to lie to herself even about the uncomfortable things and she won’t start now. The only example she has of vampire mating habits is Bella Swan and the mind reader. That’s not her, won’t ever be her. Never. They way they had hung on to each other as they all stood in the field had been sickening. Leah had been looking at the two of them when she first breached the trees, her senses zoning in on the only safe spot in a group of vampires. Bella had been staring at them, panting a little with her heart racing. They’re scary, Leah knows that and it’s nothing she holds against Bella but they way she had automatically leaned into the leech she was gripped onto was. When they all know what had happened - up to and including the idiots suicide run - it’s just disgusting to her. The way they clasp at each other, standing like an island in front of the people they expect to risk their lives for them...Jesus, it’s all so sickening. Twisted. That’s not something Leah wants.

She doesn't want the devotion of a wolf either, hard as it might be for her to admit and accept that. That love would never work for her. The ties the imprinted couples speak of sound more like chains.

_She’s my mate._

The sound of a plate hitting the wooden table draws Leah back into the present. It's not okay that she keeps letting her attention drift so much. Even back here with others running patrol she knows better than to let her guard down. Her bowls gone and a mound of mac and cheese is sitting in front of her. This time Sue joins her, her own plate much less heaped and Leah spots the other one sitting off to the side.

“He’s running patrol,” Leah tells her, nudging her head towards it as she lifts a heavy fork to her mouth. The coast route with Embry and Paul, Leah thinks but doesn’t tell.

Sue just nods, half shrugs like it isn’t anything unexpected. “When are you?”

Now it’s Leah’s turn to shrug, mouth full. Sam hadn’t given her a slot, instead just telling - telling, not ordering - her to meet them tonight to head to the field. She won’t tell Sue that though, doesn’t want to give her an easy open into something that Leah has no fucking desire to discuss with her. Has no fucking desire to discuss with anyone, not even the vampire himself. Phasing, she is certain, will be hell.

They don’t speak again, both happy to eat in silence. Even with her portion of more than double the size, Leah finishes before Sue and slips away with a smile and a quick explanation. Not even an hour until she has to meet up with the rest at the edge of the Black property and Leah needs to at least close her eyes. Settling against the worn cotton of her duvet cover it’s clear she won’t sleep but even a little break will do her good. It will be another long night, obviously, and her patience isn’t endless despite her time away. It will snap. The sounds of Sue moving around downstairs are soothing rather than annoying, a reminder that she’s finally home and in a state to deal with that fact. If she can deal with her father's death, well, she can most fucking certainly deal with whatever else they want to throw at her. With that _happy_ thought Leah lets herself drift until she hears a playful howl, close, and an answering bark even closer. It’s time.

Thinking of the walk to the Black house, Leah finally takes the time to consider the clothes she had pulled from the dresser. She hadn’t let her mind think on them and the ill fit in her rush to spend time with Sue but now she does. The trousers she used to wear when Sue would convince her to come help at the clinic. Plain, easy to wipe down. Built for comfort. Now they stop at least three inches above the sharp jut of her ankles and cut into her hip bones, leaving a harsh red line in her skin that will disappear almost instantly once the constant irritant is gone. The top, a simple vest barely reaches her belly button and she can feel the uncomfortable stretch of fabric across her increased shoulder width. Not anything she wants to be seen walking the streets in. It takes only a second to strip and pull out something a little less obviously wrong, a pair of worn grey cotton shorts that she had worn one before since phasing and a t-shirt she’d stolen from Sam years ago. It’s awkward, more for because he will know it was once his than because it makes her think of him. It’s one of the few things that covers all of her now and Leah has heard Seth moan about his lack of clothes enough since they changed to want to take from him. Knowing that she’ll be running as a wolf there isn’t any choice but barefoot.

Sue is still in the kitchen - book open at the table but her eyes on the hallway - when Leah runs down the stairs. “Patrol?”

“Don’t wait up,” Leah replies, turning towards the front. The kitchen feels like a trap and that just cements her decision to walk the street rather than run the woods to meet the Pack.

She lets the door slam behind her and tries not to feel like a coward. Avoiding her mother's questions and avoiding the Pack mind. Both are futile, the second ridiculously fucking futile but even another five minutes of calm and her own mind alone are worth the walk and the stares she gets. Curtains twitch, two cars slow almost to a stop and Leah feels more than one set of eyes follow her as she makes the turn to the old red house. A part of her rages at the looks and the words she’s sure are being shared about her behind the walls and car doors but this isn’t anything new. They’ve been speaking about her - _whispering -_  for longer than the wolf has been living in her skin and yeah, she can admit there is more than enough to talk about now. Barefoot Leah Clearwater stalking down the streets, ass half out and a ripped collared t-shirt covering a chest she hasn’t bothered managing with a bra, late enough that no good girl would be out wandering the res alone. And all this after disappear for weeks but only after walking out on her mother at her father's funeral.

The back bedroom light is on when she passes the house and Leah slows a bit to listen in to the steady breathing of Billy. The TV is on, turned down low enough that she can’t make out exactly what sport it is he’s looking at. Suddenly, it’s actually funny. This morning, this whole day in fact, he’d been quizzing her on her supernatural _mate_ and now he’s in bed. Cosied up by ten, Leah bets. Feet up watching some rerun of a game he’s probably seen before. It’s so _normal._ And here she is, speeding up and slipping behind the shack that Jacob keeps his beat up old wreck in to take off her clothes and burst out of her skin. She hasn’t managed to _acquire_ one of the ties they all use to keep their shorts tied to their legs when wolf, yet, so the shorts and t-shirt get folded up so they’re all long and thin and placed onto the ground in front of her. Usually she would leave them here, preferring not to phased back out until she’s back after her patrol runs, but she wants them this time.

_She’s my mate._

From the way the vampire had been - intense, crazed almost when the leech playing doctor had stepped in front of him - Leah can’t see him peacefully letting her run away back to the safety of her res. He’ll want to talk to her. Avoiding yet another thing she doesn’t want to deal with just yet Leah lets the wolf loss and shifts.

It still doesn’t hurt but the sound, the feel of seven other minds reaching out and pulling hers back into some _middle_ with them will always be overwhelming.

Her body moves, head lowering and mouth jaws open to clasp her long bundle between her sharp teeth. _Gentle gentle,_ she reminds herself as they close around the soft fabric. It taste wrong in her mouth - chemicals on chemicals on chemicals -  and her nose twitches with it. Still, she needs it so she’ll put up with it. Her legs start moving, eyes flicking back to the house, back even further to the dirt track leading to the house just to be sure no one can see the blur of her run into the woods.

At the same time her mind fills with everything they see, everything they say, everything they think but not. It’s all  in the background, a song left on once she’s started to read, a football game playing in the other room, someone speaking to her when she’s focused on pulling in a fishing line, a dream that has started before she has the sense to fall asleep. Sam - always always stronger than the rest - is close to the meet, waiting with Jacob by his side and watching the rest of them make their way towards him. He’s looking at his own paws, at his claws as they flex into the wet leaves he’s standing on. Leah knows where those thoughts go so she pulls back, more into herself and then, like an elastic, snaps back into that _middle_ again. You can’t leave it for long, they’ve all learnt that lesson.

 _Leah_ It’s a quiet knock rather than some just pushing the door open and walking in. He's the most gentle of them all, even in this.

Her feet speed up and her mind spins with his location, hers, she’s faster than the rest, Embry and Paul running with him, one behind one on his left, skipping over a snaggled branch that her right fore leg catches on. If he slows down she can catch him. Seth automatically slows, a  happily lilt to his thoughts when he does it and Leah changes her mind as Seth’s eyes show her Embry and Paul rushing on ahead.

 _Go on,_ she tells him, directing it out into the middle nice and loud. It catches Paul’s attention like she knew it would and she feels him dig, just a little, before he slows to let Seth catch up.

Given them choice, she’d rather he get there before her than spend any time in these woods alone. Yes, there are definitely vampires up ahead but that doesn’t mean there aren’t others.

 _Did you see her?_ Seth asks, louder now that he’s more sure of his welcome. He doesn’t say who but there’s this flash that they both have when they think of Sue. A hot happy love that’s easy, a feeling that almost reminds Leah of a rumbling in her stomach and the smell of their house filling a nose more able to smell it.

She doesn’t need to answer, just thinks on it, lingering on the hug and the thinking how different Sue’s jumper had felt in her human mouth compared to the bitter tang stinging her teeth now. _Mac and cheese on the counter._

_Yeeesssss._

It was a mistake to mention food. None of them can resist it, always hungry these days and none of them eating anything they actually want to.

_Fuck, I’m hungry._

_Cheese, yes, fucking grilled cheese i need one right now to hell with this leech bullshit_

The push of an imagine, the sweet smell of coated meat on a grill and smoke covering everything but the red handle of the flipper in their hand.

_Sue makes the best food, man. These Clearwaters got it made._

_Soup, too. Quil, you seeing this bro? Two courses._

Another image, stronger and overtaking the last. Emily at the kitchen sink in the house they share, the smell of spice and the tang of an oven that won’t ever quite be clean, her hair falling over her shoulder as she shoots them a croaked, scarred up smile.

Shaking her head hard leah pulls back again, slowing as she does it and breathing deep through her nose. Jesus, it’s always too fucking much. So many things that Leah just does not want to see, does not want to _feel._ Almost all of them have done the same, not the slowing but the pull back, and when she sinks back into it there isn’t the same intensity though she can feel them all there waiting for a reaction. Waiting for the explosion.

 _Hmmpf,_ she snorts, letting air rush through her nose as if they can actually hear it in person. _Fuck you._ She’s not giving them the satisfaction.

_First time for everything._

_Shut it, Quil._ Sam. She doesn’t need him to fight her battles.

Again, they all hit into her at once. Pulling hard, hard, too hard. Stop. She skids, paws sliding with the suddenness of it and her legs shake and stretch and hurt as the power hits into the ground through them.

A vice grip in her mind, a hand around her human throat, the bob of her adams apple as she watches her friends feet dangle off the ground. Anger. White hot, burning anger, who the fuck does he think he is he can’t fucking do this to him he has a mind a brain nononosorry I won't say anything

_Stop._

_What the heck was that?_ She snarls, legs still and head shaking, eyes closed as too many things spin behind her eyes.

 _Nothing._ Sam tells her and he thinks that’s more than enough explanation, his eyes now on Jacob across from him. He’s angry.

 _Not enough,_ Leah thinks and then she pushes out on her own, her mind twisting to find that place that Jacob sits in. She isn’t nice like Seth so there won’t be a gentle little knock. This is about her, clearly, so she’ll take it.

 _I’d tell you,_ Jacob thinks at her. He’s angry, too. They all are. _Not at you._

_At who then?_

Silence - the sudden quiet of six minds, nothing for her to see but what’s going on it front of their eyes. Trees and rock. Quil is just pushing over the little stream her and Seth sat at the second day they were wolves.

This she remembers.

Quick, before he can catch it because she _knows_ he is watching and waiting for her to react, Leah pushes into Sam. He doesn’t expect it - none of them expect it, she avoids him because he means pain and anger and worthlessness - and that’s the only reason she gets in. It’s not like the thing before. She doesn’t see it or feel it, she just remembers it and feels the power of the words on her own tongue along with the chemicals.

 _I hate you_ , she thinks loud at at them all but they know who it’s for. She’s said it often enough before. This time there is an answering hate - anger, resentment, pain - from Jake and the same from Paul. That's new.

 _You should move, Leah,_ Seth tells her quietly, the only one not focused on his own thoughts. Him and Paul are there already.

Leah doesn’t mind, lets him watch as she rolls this new information over in her mind and gets running again. They’d been at Sam and Emily's, the whole pack plus Emily and Kim, minus her. It must have been before Sam joined her at Billy's. It had only been half an hour, an hour at most that she had waited but Sam had clearly been busy. They had been angry and all fired up on the night before, teenage hormones and werewolf testosterone never a good mix no matter the night but it isn’t an excuse for what he does. A table filled with food that can't quite be stomached, too much bursting inside to add anything else in. Fury and terror, mixed up. She’d felt the skin of Paul’s neck, the flex of this throat as he swallowed under her hand, the way he’d been shaking with his rage before the order came down. If there is one thing Leah hates about this whole fucking wolf business - if it ever comes down to it and she can only pick one - it wouldn't even take her a second.

 _It was for you,_ Seth inserts quietly. _Sam thinks he’s helping. This way you don’t have to listen to them bitch and whine at you for something you can’t help. They ain’t angry at you. It’s just they think it’s-_

The thought cuts off, sharp edged and Leah understand that he’s skirted too close to the order. Seth’s good at it. Alot better than any of the rest of the, except boy wonder Jake.

 _It’s not a weapon, shouldn’t be one, not against us. Uses it when it suits him. Doesn’t play by the freaking rules._ Boy wonder himself. _Fuck off._

 _I can look after myself,_ Leah states with conviction. She can.

_I guess we’ll see about that, Leelee._

Don't call me that. Don’t don't don’t. _Go and Die._

Neither of them get to pull off a dramatic exit. Everyone lets the words fade out after they echo once, twice and then it’s gone. Back to business. Back to running, seeing claws and trees and lounging wolves all gathered up and waiting for her and Jared. He’s going to get there after her even though he started out before and Leah gives a whole body quiver at that. Prideful bitch, the people on the res call her and they aren’t wrong for once.

 _It’s almost time,_ Quil states into the almost-silence. He’s excited. Hopeful. _I wanna actually get to the fighting._ Leah had almost forgotten the reason they had met up with the leeches in the first place.

 _Focus,_ Sam tells them all, shifting to his full height. _We’ve lost a night already and no matter how -_ sickenly sweet bleach burn in their throat and nose and fuck it’s awful nothing could be worse, death decay fucking bloooooood - _distasteful we find it, we can learn from them. We need the edge if the like future teller is right._

 _We’ll fight them then? Train?_ Jake asks, trying to play it off innocent, like they don’t all know exactly where his thoughts have gone.

 _Heads will roll,_ Paul laughs.

 _Yeah yeah, i’ll take the beast._ Quil adds, laughing too, and they get a flash of the big Cullen.

Sam’s standing and moving now. He’s registered how close Leah is - Jared just a minute behind her and pushing himself to go fast while she slows down and draws it out - and he wants them all up and ready. _No one fights,_ he tells them, _Jake, fucking tone it down, yeah? This’ll be bad enough as it is._

Disappointment hits her heavy, half of it Jake and the rest a mix of her and the others. She wants to fight. What’s the point otherwise? Why are they fucking here if they aren’t going to train?

_Didn’t think she’d want to, fucking lee-_

_You knew you wouldn’t be able to finish,_ Embry mutters. _Idiot._

 _Leech lover._  She pauses for effect, _Leech lover._ It’s easy to say when it’s a taunt and Leah can feel how angry it makes Paul. _It’s just fucking words._ They can see exactly how she feels on the matter. She's felt more than one take a little dip in and look.

_Focus. We’ve got a duty. Just, fucking, just stop._

Leah’s pretty sure that’s impossible even for Sam to manage. He’d have to Alpha Order them not to think. Maybe he will. Turn them all into proper little wolf soldiers. Move on command. Sleep when he tells them. When he lets them. Attack on command. Kill on command. Good little doggie.

 _I thought you said she was better, Seth?_ Jared scoffs and Leah can see him just off to the right, close enough that she could get a bite in if she pushed it. _Cause that’s some messed up shit right there, bro._


	4. Chapter 4

Not too far back from where their cover ends Leah spots a nice little hollow. It’s small but there isn’t any build up of water so she darts off to it and finally lets the clothes fall from her mouth. She can feel Sam’s irritation at her delay but none of them stop or slow down. He’s pissed off enough already, annoyed that even dragging them all out here fifthteen minutes early isn’t enough to beat the leeches. They’d started to smell them awhile back, not long after Leah had given in and finally caught up with them all, and it’d had the usually effect. All chatter had stopped, or at least slowed down to a trickle rather than the usual flood, and they’d all gained that icy focus being around one of them brings them. Trailing just behind the rest Leah feels it still, growing as the others take in the group standing half a football field away. None of them can smell anything past the death-scent. Not the trees, not the human. 

As soon as she is past the bulk of Paul’s hairy ass her eyes seek him out. She can remember thinking of Bella as the only safe stop to rest her eyes last night but now, almost without her even deciding to do it, her eyes fly over the rest until she gets to him. He’s in the middle this time - eyes on her, and fuck it’s like he’s digging like the guys do, like he can  _ see  _ \- with the Doctor and his mate on his right. Those she passes over quickly, not interested in the least if she’s going to be honest with herself. 

He looks ridiculous.

She actually snorts at the thought, dipping her head down and puffing air out through her nose hard. He does though, totally fucking ridiculous. It’s genuinely funny.

_ How can she do that?  _ Kim, her head bent forward and milk dripping down her chin. A piece of paper, writing on it too cramped for him to read and jesus can’t she just take her time. No no, course not she’s busy, it’s fine. Legs, naked short legs that can’t quite wrap themselves all the way round him, shaking in a way that’s so silly and he wants to laugh because it’s funny and he wants this to be fun as well as fucking hot but he can’t can’t can’t laugh, no it’d be mean, it’s cute, yeah it can be cute, he likes it.

_ No Imprint,  _ Seth answers for her. He’s next to Jared, who's next to Quil who’s next to her and he’s happy about it. A little Clearwater smug, too. 

_ Good for you,  _ Leah laughs at him, ‘cause yeah, he’s just getting even better by the day her baby brother. Everyone, Leah included, are careful to not think too hard into the memory. Let it slip away. Water off a duck's back. Even angry and bitter Leah would know better than to dig into that.

_ Pay attention.  _ Sam tells them, laces it with a little power but not enough to chain them all down. The threat of it is more implied but none of them want their thoughts wandering after Jared’s show, so they do. 

The Doctor steps forward and so does the vampire -  _ your leech  _ \- as they still themselves, all starting to take this a little bit more serious. They know they have a job to do. He stalks and it’s too much. She’s laughing before she can stop herself, her body quivering and her mouth open, panting in a way she hates - too much like the animal she is - but it’s worth it. His eyes are on her still and he falters at her laughter. He can’t know what it is, the huffing and shivering of her body nothing like human laughter but he tilts his head, curious and his shaggy hair falls into his face. He has to brush it back with long white fingers before stepping forward again. Yeah, that didn’t help.

_ Leah, chill with that stuff _

_ I can’t, man, i actually can’t fucking deal with this shit. _

Leah hears them but it doesn’t stop or distract her from her own thoughts. How can she possibly be his mate when she thinks he’s maybe the most ridiculous thing she’s ever fucking seen? Everything about him is tailor made, Leah imagines, calculated to make him seem like a harmless boy. It’s so stupid that these vampires think they can pull it off. Brown honest to freaking god loafers are on his feet. There’s mud already creeping up the sides marring the perfect leather. The jeans are the least objectionable thing in her opinion but he’s got a fucking button down shirt, only one button left open so it looks almost like he’s choking himself with it, and this, this fucking grandpa pull over on the top. The shirt is grey and so’s the jumper, the colours making him look even more sick and  _ dead.  _ He looks so out of place and it’s just so fucking funny, she can’t even deal. A late night meeting with his mortal enemies in the middle of the rain soaked forest and he’s wearing loafers. Of all the things she thought she might feel - worried she might feel - when she saw him again, humour wasn’t anywhere on the list. 

He’s still looking at her, taking in her as she looks him from over from top to bottom. The hair she likes. Leah’s not going to lie about it, no she doesn’t do that ever. It is the only thing that suits him. It makes him look wild, untamed, like the predator his stalking over the field betrayed him to be. 

_ Come on, man, noooo _

_ I don’t wanna be hearing this, Leah.  _

_ Leelee, god, leah, no come on, no control….stop thinking.  _

_ Ahhhhhhhhhh shit no _

_ Stop listening if you don’t want to hear,  _ she snarls out. Loud and forceful. They all say she’s the loudest - beside Sam - that she’s the one who can make their ears ring and Leah tries for it now. To hell with them. She’s seen more than they  _ ever  _ will. 

“Thank you for coming,” the doctor calls out to them. It stills them all in that middle place. Reminds them of what they’re here for. Leah takes her eyes of the vampire and looks at him, watching the easy smile he gives even as she feels Paul bare his teeth. “We’ve a lot to cover and not long to do it. Alice,” he tilts his head behind him and Leah follows it with her eyes, catches sight of the little female, the one Bella told them Sees, “saw the newborns coming the day after tomorrow.”

_ When?  _ Sam asks, thinking it loud enough that everything else is a whisper. 

“They want to know when,” the mind reader calls, his voice quiet but  _ all  _ of them turn at it. Jacob hates this leech more than any of them hate anything else and it draws them all, synchronises them, as his fury pulls at them all. 

“Early,” the doctor answers and Sam looks back at him, trying to pull all their focus back.  _ I could take him, i know i could, fucking leech, he’s gonna kill her, Bella Bella stupid she looks so fucking good.  _ It doesn’t work. “Some time in the morning.”

_ Morning as in middle of the night morning? Or morning as in ten morning?  _ Seth thinks, one of the few actually still trying to follow the words being said. 

_ Hopefully middle of the night,  _ Leah adds.  _ Less chance of them running into someone on the way here.  _

The mind reader moves forward, his hands gently letting go of Bella’s as he does. He moves fast, quick enough that Leah would bet Bella hadn’t been able to follow it, before stopping beside the leader. “It shifts,” he tells them, his weird fluffy hair bouncing as he nods at Seth. 

_ Don’t fucking look at him,  _ Leah snarls, taking two steps forward to back it up before stopping. The vampire had moved too, taking a step toward the mind reader. Stalking again, Leah thinks. Threatening. It’s the first time he’s looked away from her, too. Eyes stuck on the mind reader and he looks furious. It’s a good look on him.

Embarrassment hits her hard, she’s always more open to Seth than the rest.  _ Leah, come on. Not cool.  _

She won’t say sorry when she doesn’t mean it. 

_ When. _

The hair bounces again and the leech turns to look at Sam. Good. “Around six, though sometimes it looks as late as eleven.”

_ Well that’s certainly helpful.  _

_ Like we’ve got nothing better to do.  _

The doctor clears his throat then and gives the mind reader a look that has him scurrying back to his little pet human. “I understand there are personal matters to be discussed,”  _ fucknononoonononon, not while we’re here, come on no. SHUT UP ,  _ “but both myself and Jasper think it best we deal with the matter at hand before. Newborns are dangerous, exceptionally so, and it would be unwise to underestimate them.”

Jasper, Leah thinks. Jasper. She wants suddenly to be human, to have a human mouth, a human throat, her own tongue. She wants to taste it in her mouth. Jasper. It’s not a name she’s heard before. Old. 

_ He’s a lee- _

_ Yuck _

_ Stop _

The vampire on his knees, feet pounding into the ground and his teeth bi-

_ Don’t think about it don’t think don’t think about it, fight, yeah the fight. _

_ WHY?  _

“Sam wants to know why,” the mind reader calls quietly. 

And then it happens, like a sudden stillness falls over them all. The vampire - Jasper - turns again so he’s facing them head on. Facing her head on, eyes roaming over the lot of them as his hands move behind his back and his chest puffs out. _Proud little bloodsucker,_ Leah thinks, vicious. He doesn’t look ridiculous any more and she won’t take it lying down, won’t let her thoughts spin him in that certain slant of light. 

“They are made for one thing and one thing only,” he starts, eyes still roaming but settling longer on her than on the rest. “They are stronger, faster, crazed with their new strength and blood lust. One could destroy a town, ten could take down a country. It will be like nothing you have fought before. Nothing.”

Every word drips with conviction. 

_ This one’s mental,  _ Quil quips, trying to shake off his unease. Leah doesn’t think so. 

“Victoria -”  _ red hair flashing, arm just fucking out of his reach, teeth snapping on air, water in his mouth, a flash of Jakes back as he runrunruns faster and fuck kill her get her, a fire on the water as Bella chokes for air in his arms  _ \- “has created them to destroy us. To destroy you. They will know this, have heard it ever since they woke to this life, and will be completely focused on it. It will have been made clear to them that their survival depends on our destruction. Instinct drives them, not reason. They’ll be faster than you - than all of us - and much, much stronger.”

_ Well that sure don’t sound good, _ Embry quips, hoping for light and airy but they call all feel his worry. 

_ Fuck this, man. Come on, Sam, _ Paul shouts, his head turning away from where he had been steadily glaring at the big Cullen to look at Jared and then Sam.  _ This is bullshit. We’ve taken one down! Hell, we could take these fuckers down! This is bullshit fucking ridiculous let’s just kill them. _

_ Paul, no.  _ Sam replies but they can all feel even he isn’t convinced. 

The vampire leans forward and Leah starts, shocked by the action. His hands stay behind his back but he’s threatening now, his eyes boring into Sam and his mouth pulled up into a smirk. “Why would I lie? Or exaggerate? I have more stacked on this fight than you, wolf. You would do fucking well to listen.” 

That’s so clearly about her even Quil sees it.  _ If you have something to say, vampire, say it to me!  _

_ This isn’t working,  _ Jacob thinks. No, no it isn’t. Leah knows what would work, let’s it flash quick before she turns around and steadily makes her way back to the hollow in the tree. She doesn’t run, this isn’t a retreat. Seth isn’t happy, worried enough that Leah almost thinks of stopping, but he doesn’t say anything. How the rest of them are holding their tongue Leah has no idea. This is usually the kind of thing they’d be all over but maybe, maybe they believe a little bit more than Paul. 

“She’s going to phase,” Leah hears the mind reader announce into the silence. Surely it wasn’t necessary to explain. Show off. 

The shift has her panting, one knee on the forest floor with her right hand as she gets her breath back. Gets used to being alone inside her own head again. The smell of  _ leech  _ isn’t as strong like this either and it’s nice, a break to just let herself settle before heading back to the rest of them. Her clothes are exactly where she left them and thankfully, mostly dry. The shorts she slips on first, t-shirt second and then she look down at her legs. And she’d thought he looked ridiculous. Feet much softer and delicate than her paws, Leah takes her time and keeps her eyes on the ground as she makes her way back to them. There isn’t anyone talking and that makes it all the more awkward when she steps out, closer to Quil than she was as a wolf, and all vampire and human eyes turn to her. It makes her anxious but her feet don’t pause and her heartbeat stays steady in her chest. This Jasper steps towards her, his hands falling to his sides and his eyes trained on her. Leah stops in her tracks just ahead of Seth and the others, feeling suddenly like this was the worst idea and wanting something solid at her back. She could hide. 

They all snarl behind her, Sam, Paul and Seth the loudest as he walks towards her. It impresses her that their obvious anger doesn’t stop him. Squaring her shoulders, she waits. He’s even more pale up close, in nothing but the cold light of the moon, big purple blue rings under his eyes. Straight nose, a mouth surrounded by thin lips. There’s nothing to give his face any character, she’s thought that about the leeches before and it’s the same for him. They get made into perfect little monsters by their change and to Leah, perfect is boring. Still, there is something about him. He’s not pretty but he looks strong and…steady some how. She likes it. 

“That’s close enough,” she mumbles, annoyed with herself and with him for simply being. He’s close enough that if they both put their arms out their fingers could touch. Definitely close enough. He’s got a self sure little smirk curling on those thin lips and she wants to punch him, the urge strong enough that her fingers curl into fists. He watches it happen and just smirks all the more.

_ Fucking vampire.  _

A nudge - meant to be gentle but still enough to jerk both her knees forward for a second - from behind has her looking away and uncurling. It’s Seth, right behind her and tilting his head towards the rest of the leeches. 

Right. “Why are they stronger? Why will it be difficult? How do you know?” Pause for a smirk “Maybe these newborn blood suckers are only faster, only  _ stronger  _ than your kind.”

He looks stupidly pleased with himself, pulling those arms behind him again. Leah watches, eyes on that idiotic pullover as his chest puffs out. “They still have their own human blood running through them, powering them from the inside out. It’s like the ultimate steroid. I’ve fought them before - I know exactly how strong they are and you won’t be a match for them.”

“Alright,” Leah replies, flicking a look back at Seth and the rest. She can’t tell what they are thinking anymore than the leeches can - excusing the mind reader. It didn’t feel like an insult, just like an uncomfortable truth and hopefully the rest caught that too. “So, how do we fight them?”

That's the important part and it's clearly the right question to, he lights up all smiles now. No half smirk and suddenly Leah feels fucking giddy. “Be smart,” he tells her, just her even though they can all hear it. “Don't go for the obvious kill. Don't let them get a hold on you - you’ll be crushed before you can get loose.” 

Yes, yes fucking yes. This is it, this is what she's made for, her blood pumps harder and suddenly Leah wants nothing more than her wolf skin. 

“Watch and learn, wolf-girl.”

So she does. She watches like her fucking life depends on it, standing with her brother at her at side and her hand clenched in his fur. It’s unbelievable. Just as well she’d not phased back and fallen into that middle mind again, no, it’s just for her, the things she’s thinking. He stalks again and all this family move back, the one the Doctor had called Alice moving Bella off to stand far far away from the wolfs. Leah’s glad for it. Conversation with Bella Swan is not something she has on any agenda. This Jasper, he commands attention and not just from her. He’s the one bloodsucker she’s willing to give her human attention too and she can see how that could make her biased. Her interest in him is sharp and dangerous like the edge of a knife. The others watch him with only slightly less intensity. Whenever she can manage to pull her gaze away from where he eagerly berates and beats on his  _ family,  _ she sees their interest and in a few cases - Seth and Quil, both who don’t know any better - their admiration.

The silence in her mind is a blessing - there is nothing in her that wants to know what her own face looks like as she takes it all in. 

He looks over at her a lot, more than can be written off by anyone. The rest of his family look at her too, though those stares and side long glances Leah is more than happy to ignore. Fuck them. She doesn’t want to speak to any of them at all, nothing about her opinion of them has changed. Whatever this is, whatever this mating thing is and what it might have changed in her, Leah does not like the Cullens. The looks are not open or friendly, more like the looks she remembers her teachers directing at her than the ones Sam used to. He wants her to pay him attention but not because he wants her eyes on him, wants her attention on him, he wants her to learn. _ I have more stacked on this fight than you, wolf.  _ At the time - and still - the comment had made her angry but now, with her own silence and her eyes seeing the reality of vampire combat, Leah is willing to accept it more. Not that he has more stacked, but that he thinks he does. She is his Seth. And he doesn’t even know her name. 

Seth. That thought, the sudden realisation that Seth will be involved in this has her hand clenching in his coat. She’s leaning on him, the whole left side of her torso flush with his bulk and she immediately straightens up. He tilts his head down so his eyes meet hers, her head now facing the floor. Fuck. She knew he would have to fight but something about seeing these vampires, who aren’t as strong as the ones they will face if Jasper is to be believed, drives it home to her. Seth could be hurt. Could be  _ killed. _ Leah won’t let that happen. 

Looking up and towards where Sam has positioned himself she clears her throat, intentionally loud and she feels too many pairs of eyes snap to her. “We should fight,” she states and the reaction is instant. Seth freezes, muscles bunching under her side and her fingers unclench in his hair, her hand smoothing it out in a pointless effort to soothe what he must be hearing in his mind. Sam has locked his eyes on her and they burn with his fire. He is not happy at the suggestion. “It’s all theoretical until one of us get in there,” she reasons, “and we can’t afford that.”

“He thinks it’s too dangerous,” the mind reader calls out, voice conversation level, from where he has moved to be near his darling Bella. Leah doesn’t bother to turn and look to him. 

Instead her eyes follow Jasper as he pulls the blonde leech to her feet and turns to face her, arms folded over his chest this time. He’s not smirking or smiling or doing anything at all with his face. It’s completely blank for the first time since Leah came into the field and his eyes flick back and forth between her and Sam. 

“It’s training,” Leah scoffs, going for derision but landing somewhere closer to confused. 

“We would stop,” the mind reader calls out again, clearly replying to something not said aloud. “There would be no risk from that, it does nothing for us.”

“Tomorrow.” It’s Jasper and it is a statement of fact. Sam turns from where he was still staring at her and Leah watches from the outside as the two stare each other down. She wants to say please but her pride won’t let her. If Sam doesn’t give in here, she’ll take the route less travelled and bring Seth to the vampire herself. The others she cares for but Seth she loves. 

Eventually Sam nods his big black head. Leah catches her smirk before it shows and just nods once to this Jasper instead. He had helped her help Seth, which is meaningful. It isn’t a small thing to her. 

Still, she plans to run. Her clothes are nothing and Leah’s woman enough to admit that it would be running. Seth hasn’t moved throughout the short conversation so it takes her a moment to let his fluff untangle from where it’s wrapped around her fingers. Before she can take the step back, the first one of the good few that she’d need to make sure her shift didn’t catch him out, there’s a shift of air. It’s like a hairdryer on cool blowing straight over her body, the air current rushing towards her and then bending around her body. She takes that step and starts to turn, already knowing what’s behind her from the snarls and growls coming from the pack. He’s quicker than he’s shown in the fighting. 

“We should talk,” he states as soon as she is half facing him. “Unless you are  _ uncomfortable. _ ” He says it like he means afraid. 


End file.
